Axar Patel and Shikhar Dhawan IPL century: The left-handed duo from Delhi Capitals stitched a 26-run stand to seal the chase.
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During the 34th match of the ongoing 13th season of the Indian Premier League between Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings in Sharjah, Delhi Capitals beat Chennai Super Kings by 5 wickets to register their seventh victory this season.
Chasing a 180-run target, Capitals lost Prithvi Shaw (0) and Ajinkya Rahane (8) inside the powerplay to register a below par start. However, it was a 68-run partnership for the third wicket between opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan and captain Shreyas Iyer which put Delhi back on track.
Dhawan, who had scored a 16-ball 24 in the powerplay, maintained his form with Iyer playing second fiddle to him. Having struck some eye-catching boundaries, the 34-year old player scored runs across the ground.
It was on the third delivery of the 10th over that Dhawan ran a single off Chennai all-rounder Dwayne Bravo to complete his third consecutive half-century.
With Delhi needing 104 runs in the last 10 overs, Dhawan found boundaries willfully despite losing Iyer (23). The situation eventually demanded Capitals to score 51 runs in the last five overs. In the 17th over, Dhawan hit a four and a six off Chennai all-rounder Sam Curran to bring down the equation to needing 30 runs in three overs.
Curran giving away just four runs in the penultimate over meant that DC had to score 17 runs in the last over being bowled by Ravindra Jadeja. However, Capitals all-rounder Axar Patel hit three sixes off Jadeja to seal an emphatic chase.
While Patel’s 5-ball 21 won the match for DC, it was Dhawan who worked the hardest to score his maiden IPL century, 101* (58), with the help of 14 fours and a six.
Twitter reactions on Axar Patel and Shikhar Dhawan IPL century
Now tht was a daredevil chase by dc Outstanding knock by @SDhawan25 congrats on your first ipl 💯 @akshar2026 great composure in the last over ‘ tough on @imjadeja to ball the final over to lefties If @DJBravo47 was fit and bowling could have bin different result for @ChennaiIPL
— Yuvraj Singh (@YUVSTRONG12) October 17, 2020
axar patel conceded 1 four in 24 balls and hit 3 sixes in 5 balls tonight! #DCvCSK #IPL2020
— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) October 17, 2020
Dhai Axar Prem ke.
Wonderful hundred from @SDhawan25 but Axar Patel doing to Dhoni’s team what was done to him by Dhoni 4 years ago. But a much better batting performance from CSK. #DCvCSK— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) October 17, 2020
Brilliant 💯 from @SDhawan25 mr consistent for @DelhiCapitals as for #csk fielding was the main reason they lost,You can’t win matches by dropping so many catches #IPL2020
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) October 17, 2020
What a victory by @DelhiCapitals…..super impressive by them!!
— Lisa Sthalekar (@sthalekar93) October 17, 2020
Injuries so what! This team is looking stellar. @SDhawan25 in the last few games seem to have moved from 2nd to 5th gear. Brilliant innings from him and it means @ChennaiIPL sinks further. @DelhiCapitals sure contender for top 2 positions.
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) October 17, 2020
Well played Gabbar @SDhawan25 for a super ton. Single-handedly won the match. #CSKvDC #DCvCSK #IPL2020
— R P Singh रुद्र प्रताप सिंह (@rpsingh) October 17, 2020
When he plays like that Shikhar Dhawan is amongst the most pleasing batsmen on the eye. That is two innings now that he has cranked up his strike rate. Excellent innings.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) October 17, 2020
Chennai gave Dhawan enough chances and he made them pay big time. Nobody to blame but their catching. They did have a good score on the board but if you field like that, you don’t create enough pressure and a loss is well deserved
— Nikhil 🏏 (@CricCrazyNIKS) October 17, 2020
After 265 T20 games, Shikhar Dhawan finally gets a T20 hundred. #IPL2020
— Sreshth Shah (@sreshthx) October 17, 2020
Earlier, Super Kings scored 179/4 in 20 overs after captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and chose to bat. Having scored 58 (47) including six fours and two sixes, opening batsman Faf du Plessis was CSK’s top run-scorer. For DC, pacer Anrich Nortje was the pick of their bowlers with figures of 4-0-44-2.
